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UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

4.MICHAEL O. BOYER, OF NORRISTOWNfPENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN. DEVICES FOR OPENING OYSTERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 112,895, dated March 21, 1871.

I, MICHAEL G.BOYER, of Norristown, county of Montgomery, State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Instrument for Opening Oysters, of which the following is a specification:

Nature and Object of the Intention.

My invention consists ot` nippers or pinchers combined with a blade, substantially as described hereafter, so as to form an oysteropening instrument by which the shell can be broken and opened with facility. Y

rIhe igure in the accompanying drawing represents, in perspective, my instrument for opening oysters.

The instrument consists of two levers, A and A', the long arms of which are to be grasped by the hand of the operator, the short arms b and b being curved, and terminating in sharp or comparatively sharp edges. In fact, the instrument is very similar to an ordinary pair of pinchers or nippers, such as are used for the operatora duty which, in using the abovein his right hand, with his left passes the edge of the closed oyster-shell between the jaws formed by the curved arms b and b of the levers, and, compressing the long arms of the latter in his right hand, severs 0r breaks a portion from the shell, so as to present an opening for the insertion of the blade B, which he manipulates while still grasping the long arms of the levers, precisely as he would manipulate the blade of an ordinary oysterknife.

It will be seen, without further description, that by the above-described instrument the operator can break the shell of the oyster by the pinchers and open the shell by the blade without releasing the long arms of the levers from his grasp.

Claim.

An oyster-opener consisting of pinchers or nippers andblade combined in one instrument, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

MICHAEL C. BOYER.

'.' Witnesses: l

WM. A. STEEL, FRANKLIN B. RIonARDs. 

